June 26, 2026 – January 10, 2027
As an artistic and political movement, Surrealism had an international reach and internationalist beliefs. Rooted in art and literature, it cherished much wider ambitions: to revolutionize society and redefine life itself. “‘Transform the world,’ said Marx; ‘change life,’ said Rimbaud: these two goals make only one for us,” André Breton declared in 1935.
Since their emergence in the 1920s, Surrealists have confronted a number of political programs that contradicted the ideals of equality and freedom. They would condemn Europe’s colonial projects, organize themselves against fascists, fight in the Spanish Civil War, join the resistance during World War II—to be denounced as “degenerate” by the Nazi, face internment or persecution, ultimately flee Europe or die on the battlefields or in camps. Their resistance was art itself. Through poetry, painting, photography, collage, and exhibition-making they strived to expose flaws in the supposedly rational message of the supposedly rational civilization of the West.
As fascism gained ground in Europe, as Nazification of Germany progressed, as World Wars and colonial wars broke out—Surrealists wouldn’t budge; protagonists of Surrealism remained radical in their ideological and political choices. At the same time, these upheavals resulted in extraordinary encounters and a truly global solidarity: Prague would stand with Coyoacán, Mexico; Cairo, with the Spanish Republic; Marseille, with Martinique’s Fort-de-France; Puerto Rico and Paris, with Chicago; and London, with New York. Surrealist thought and action have had an all-encompassing simultaneousness to them. Accordingly, the show unfolds as if on a map rather than a timeline. The intent here is to present Surrealism as an international movement invested heavily in society and politics—in line with how its members perceived it.
ARTISTS
Jankiel Adler, Eileen Agar, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Hans Arp, John Banting, Ezekiel Barouk, Hans Bellmer, Erwin Blumenfeld, Marian Bogusz, Vladimír Boudník, Victor Brauner, André Breton, Emmy Bridgewater, Luis Buñuel, Claude Cahun (Lucy Schwob), Leonora Carrington, Zbigniew Dłubak, Óscar Domínguez, Inji Efflatoun, Max Ernst, Merlyn Evans, Emil Filla, Leonor Fini, František Foltýn, Esteban Francés, Wolfgang Frankenstein, Eugenio Fernández Granell, Thomas Samuel Haile, Stanley William Hayter, John Heartfield (Helmut Herzfeld), Jindřich Heisler, Werner Heldt, Georges Henein, Jacques Hérold (Herold Blumer), Karol Hiller, Hannah Höch, Kati Horna, František Janoušek, Ted Joans (Theodore Jones), Marion Kalter, Fouad Kamel, Tadeusz Kantor, Ida Kar, Katarzyna Kobro, Aleksander Krzywobłocki, Jerzy Kujawski, Wifredo Lam, Alfred Lenica, Jean Lurçat, Dora Maar (Henriette Théodora Markovitch), Conroy Maddox, René Magritte, Jeanne Mammen, André Masson, Roberto Matta, Leonore Mau, Willy Maywald, Jadwiga Maziarska, F.E. McWilliam, Mikuláš Medek, Katja Meirowsky, Kazimierz Mikulski, Lee Miller, Joan Miró, Marcel Moore (Suzanne Malherbe), Arturo Nathan, Amy Nimr, Wolfgang Paalen, Roland Penrose, Pablo Picasso, Pere Portabella, Alice Rahon (Paalen), Vilém Reichmann, Alain Resnais, Edith Rimmington, Erna Rosenstein, Alberto Sánchez, Hans Rudolf Schiess, Kurt Seligmann, Jerzy Skarżyński, Humphrey Spender, Jonasz Stern, Władysław Strzemiński, Jindřich Štyrský, Eva Sulzer, Marian Szulc, Bogusław Szwacz, Yves Tanguy, Karel Teige, Hervé Télémaque, Franciszka Themerson, Stefan Themerson, Václav Tikal, Toyen (Marie Čermínová), Heinz Trökes, Raoul Ubac, Remedios Varo, Alois Wachsman, Wols (Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze), WoTi (Kati Horna, Wolf Hamburger), Ramses Younan, Enrique Zañartu, Unica Zürn, Teresa Żarnower
